10 thoughts on “The Monster Rocket”

  1. Well, if I were in New Space, I’d be avoiding any dependency on NASA contracts, because this will such up most of its commercial funding, I imagine.

    Actually, I’d avoid any dependencies on NASA, period.

  2. I think that the current GOP push against crony capitalism is going to end commercial crew as we know it in any case.

  3. It is mindless and stupid to imagine that multiple, competitive, fixed-price-for-performance contracts are somehow “crony capitalism,” but that gargantuan, sole-source, no-bid cost-plus contracts directed to particular companies at Congressional behest is not.

  4. Crony capitalism? Buying goods and services from the private sector alone isn’t crony capitalism. Otherwise, Staples selling pens and paper to the government would count.

    Frankly, companies like SpaceX lack most of the hallmarks of a crony capitalist business–one of the most glaring being their lack of any political power in framing the manned spaceflight discussion. Not to mention they’ve been very open about their desire to have a more diverse customer base.

    NASA has a very obvious need for cargo and manned missions to LEO, especially to the ISS. SpaceX in particular has anticipated that need and saw it as a way to get significant revenue while building the market.

  5. Baghdad Bob again! Black is white, up is down, politically expedient aerospace welfare programs are capitalism, actual capitalism is cronyism.

  6. By the way, notice how yet another big-rocket announcement came equipped with the phrase that will eventually kill the thing. Last time it was “Apollo on Steroids,” now it’s “Monster Rocket.” Some public-affairs guy isn’t doing his job.

  7. And once again planet Earth has picked up a space transmission from a planet in an alternate universe.

    From planet whittington:

    “I think that the current GOP push against crony capitalism is going to end commercial crew as we know it in any case.”

    You see on planet whittington, sole source, cost plus-fixed fee contracts are not considered crony capitalism. In the alternate universe that planet whittington resides in when his big socialist government issues a contract that is competitively bid, with a fixed price milestone structure is issued, it has to be closed down as crony capitalism.

    I hope Seti stops making these transmissions from planet whittington public.

  8. At some point Mark Whittington is bound to Google “crony capitalism” and find out what it actually is. That will be a glorious day on the internets, kind of like when people realise that Facism is a social system based on faces and hippocracy is rule by hippopotamuses.

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